Search Stock Throwdown: Baidu vs. Google

Identifying the best investment opportunities in the market takes time. So we've built this "Prospecting" screen -- which is a simplified version of the special checklist that has helped Jeff Fischer and the Motley Fool Pro team -- to accelerate your research and help you identify companies that may make a winning addition to your portfolio.

The following stock screen is based on proprietary community intelligence from the 135,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS. We've enhanced the data by factoring in four hand-picked fundamental criteria to measure growth rates, margins, and overall financial health. Although we use these as guidelines, optimal benchmarks vary widely by industry. So get out your shovel and pickax as we start digging for gold.

Our expedition begins by comparing Baidu.com with Google. Let's compare the two search giants using our screen:

Baidu.com vs. Google

Stock	Baidu.com (Nasdaq: BIDU  )		Google (Nasdaq: GOOG  )
CAPS Community Rating We prefer 4-star or 5-star stocks.
CAPS 1000 We like stocks rated "outperform" by 80% of top CAPS members.	67% Outperform		84% Outperform
Five-Year Revenue Growth We like to see five-year revenue growth of at least 10%.	121.17%		54.97%
Gross Margin (TTM) We like to see gross margins of 35% or higher.	64.6%		68.8%
Total Debt-to-Equity A total debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50 or less gets a check.	.00		.04
Return on Equity We look for a minimum of 14% return on equity.	35.8%		14.6%
Total Score	4 of 6		5 of 6

N/M = not meaningful.

According to this admittedly simple screen, Google appears to be a better opportunity than Baidu.

What do you think about Baidu and Google? If you'd like to make your own call on these stocks, or post a pitch about why you think they will outperform or underperform the market, click here. Of course, you can also just visit to see what other members are saying about them now or what they are saying about more than 5,300 other stocks by joining us on CAPS.

Our Prospecting Stocks screen is a simplified version of the special checklist that has helped Jeff Fischer and the Pro community to find the next opportunities for the Motley Fool Pro portfolio. Learn more about Motley Fool Pro.